Lets start with a small world story. I am sure you all know by now how much I love these stories.
On March 27th I left Disneyland and headed for Santa Monica some 50 miles away. As I got closer to the Pacific Ocean the wind got stronger. Once I got on the beach bike path, some 20 miles from Santa Monica, the wind was very strong. I could see up ahead that the wind was blowing the sand across the bike path. Since I did not want a chain full of sand I decided to get off the bike path. I head off the path and towards one of the alleys that run parallel to the beach. Up ahead I saw a rider cross in front of me. It looked like Grant (my longtime friend) but it could not be since he should be at work. I turned down the alley where I saw the bike go and picked up my speed to catch up with the rider. Sure enough it was Grant.
As I rode along side him I said “Hi”. Grant look very surprised. We stopped to talk a little before riding on to his place of work when we had lunch together. I had not planned on seeing Grant on this trip but it sure was great it worked out. If Grant had not been about 2 hours late for work (not a problem as his son runs the business) and if the wind was not so strong we would have never run into each other. Yes, it’s a small world.
After a nice lunch, I rode on to Santa Monica and the Youth Hostel were I would meet David. Checking in I got on the elevator for the 4th floor. As the elevator door opened there was David. Now the team was together and ready for a great adventure. After dinner we went to see the movie “Hard Road”. This was the story of the “NetZero” pro cycling team. It was a pretty good movie and showed just hard it is to get a team together and to be successful.
(3-28 Santa Monica) Today was a day to just goof off. We rode to Torrance to take a look at my house (I still own it and it’s rented). On the way, again on the beach bike path, we ran into another good friend, Ralph. Ralph had given me the route from Disneyland to Santa Monica (thanks) and made a good suggestion as to which road we should take tomorrow in order to get across Los Angeles (thanks again). There are many roads that will take you across LA some a better and safer than others.
On the way back from Torrance we made a stop at Venice Beach to take in the sights. Yes, Venice Beach is ALWAYS good for sightseeing. Among other sights we saw a guy walking on broken glass, another guy dancing who had backward feet and we got hit up to invest in a guy’s “plan.” I must admit my mind was closed to this guy so I can’t even tell you what his scheme was. Then it was back to Santa Monica, dinner and early to bed.
(3-29 San Bernardino) Finally the long awaited day was here. Before hitting the road we had our picture taken in front of the Santa Monica pier, the official start or finish of Route 66. We were across LA by 9 am and were on our way to Pasadena. In downtown LA we saw our first Route 66 sign. The sign read “Historic Route 66, Circa 1926 to 1934.” What a great feeling it was to see the sign. It was a wonderful day with a temp of 74 degrees and sunny. As we rode on we could see a man standing in the road up ahead waving at us. I rode by and said “hi” but he had his hand out trying to hand us something. David stuck out his hand a got whatever it was. A few blocks down the road we stopped to see what it was. The guy had given us two lapel pins which read “100% American” above an Eagle. The guy must have passed us in his car and saw we were wearing out “Tour of America” bike jerseys, which are red, white and blue. We should have stopped to talk to the guy but now days you just don’t know what to do. We found a motel and after dinner settled in for the night.
(3-30 Victorville) Today we have a tough climb up through Cajon Pass (4190 feet) some 25 miles of up hill and with a pretty good head wind. We were glad to reach Victorville. Dinner was at Peggy Sue’s Nifty 50s diner.
(3-31 Ludlow) This day would be a long 94 miles of desert riding with the last miles being on a very bad road. The further east we went the better the road got. But we did not know this at the time. About mid-afternoon we arrived at the Bagdad Cafe, and the remains of the town of Bagdad, which was the inspiration for the film “Bagdad Cafe.” We stopped in for a ice cream shake. Halfway through our shake a guy came in a sat near us. He was older, over weight and with a full white beard. Among other things he told us that he was the one who went to South America in 1982 and shot Hitler. He then showed us a badge to prove it. To me the badge looked like one that can be bought in any surplus store. He went on to tell us that he currently has five million employees and all the aircraft in the air today belong to him. He then proceed to tell us he spoke two thousand languages and we could take his picture if we wanted. We did not take his picture which I still regret not doing so.
(4-1Amboy) This would be another interesting day. The plan was to ride to Essex and spend the night camping at the RV Park. Because we stopped on the way and had a chat at Roy’s Motel and Cafe we found out that the RV Park was no more and there no other place to stay or for that matter no place to eat in or near the town of Essex. So Roy’s, located in the town of Amboy, would be our overnight for the day.
In the year 2000 two people bought the entire town of Amboy (population 7), all 700 acres of it, including the church and the post office as well as Roy’s. They are trying to preserve this last Route 66 stopover between the towns of Barstow and Needles.
Buster Burris the previous owner sold it. Buster, back in 1938 while working at near by March Air Force Base met a girl from Amboy whose father, Roy Crowl, owned a garage, some cabins, and a cafe. When Buster married Roy’s daughter they became business partners. By 1940, Roy and Buster had turned the garage into a 24-hour operation and added a wrecking service. Five years later they expanded the cafe. After World War II, when America was on the move, mostly westward, cars were often backed up at Roy’s, waiting for repairs. When the cabins were full, travelers slept in their cars. Back then, Amboy was the only place to fix a car within 40 miles.
Travelers got to Needles and said, “Ahhh, California,” but there’s 90 miles of desert between Needles and Amboy, 250 miles before anything turns green. Those travelers must have thought, “What have we gotten ourselves into?”
For the new owners, Roy’s is a memorial. The people who came through here in the heyday of Route 66 knew what hardship was. They left places where they worked 12 hours a day for 50 cents a week, they had hopes that when they got to California they could make a buck and a half a week. Roy’s is a monument to those people, and to the people who stayed open 365 days a year to help them get where they were going.
We stayed in one of those cabins, ate lunch, dinner and breakfast at Roy’s. By the way Roy’s had the highest gas prices that we saw on the whole tour, $2.99 per gal.
(4-2 Needles) This would be our last day in California. It was on to Needles a border town between California and Arizona. What a great day for riding with lots of sun and some great tail winds. We hit the road at 5:20 AM since it was 90 miles, 50 miles up hill and 40 miles down, to Needles. Arriving in Needles we found a motel, “The Best Motel.” Going into the office we found two kids running the place. We asked the price for 2 people, 2 beds and were told $28.60, they said our room was not ready and could we come back in an hour. We rode around town and when we returned to “The Best Motel” we were told our room was still not ready. We could hear the kids yelling at the maid to get the room clean and the maid yelling back that she was not going to clean the room. Just what the problem was we did not find out.
The kids told us that we could have another room, the only room which was already clean. As we opened the door to our room we found, the rug very dirty, the bathroom window broken, no place to hang cloths, the room smelled (mold), the towel rack was broken, the paint on the ceiling was pealing, the air-condition unit was just kind of hanging on the wall and the floor was dirty. Well, what do you want for $28.60. “The Best Motel” turned out to be “The Worst” motel. The only real problem was the smell. From now on I would always check out the room before we took it. No other motel was as bad as this place was.
Dinner was at “The Hungry Bear” a Route 66 landmark. Tomorrow we would cross into Arizona, one state down 7 to go (on Route 66). It was a good first five days. I felt slight sore throat starting, mmm, could it be a cold?
We rode 380 miles with 6880 feet of gain. Our elevation gain, while not actual measured by me, it is based on the book - Cycling Across North America by Christian, who did measure the gain and they rode almost the exact same route as we did.